Since visiting the Least Used Amtrak Station (tm) in various states is all the rage these days, when offered chance to visit Benson, home of the Least Used Amtrak Station in Arizona, I quickly accepted and booked a flight out. I know that technically one is supposed to use Amtrak to visit these stations, but my friend had an airline companion pass and I'd be able to complete the trip in the same amount of time an LD train could get to the station. In addition to the Benson Amtrak station I have other photos taken along the old Southern Pacific main line ( mirror ).
The route between Phoenix and Benson along I-10 directly parallels the Southern Pacific and one will inevitably have the opportunity to catch Union Pacific freight trains rolling between the Southern California ports and Texas. Some highlights on my trips include ES44AC #7730, C44ACM #9817 and SD70ACe #8611.
The Benson, AZ Amtrak Station is the Least Used Station in Arizona with only 2071 boardings in 2024. The "station" consists of a dirt parking area, a shelter with two seating benches, an info sign and a one door "platform".
It wasn't long before an eastbound doublestack rolled past on track #2 with AC4400's #6859, #5660, #6524 and C44ACM #5868 leading.
After spending something like $40 to get from Trenton to Long Branch and back earlier in the summer, when I heard that NJT was doing one of those free fare promotions around the Labour Day holiday I decided to pounce and take a trip up the NEC to get some photos at the Edison and Metutchen Stations. Both offer great NEC views along with position light signals and, in the case of Metutchen, the old LINCOLN interlocking tower. Also included in the photo set ( mirror ) are some pitches in and around the Trenton station.
To make NJT truly free I parked at the Bordentown RiverLINE station to avoid having to pay to park in the garage at Hamilton. Weekend scheduled have the LRV's passing just south of the station so I managed to catch #5313 heading south and #5306 heading north.
Because NJT hates creating reliable connections I had to book it from the RiverLINE to the Northeast Corridor platform to catch the NEC local. I typically relax and catch the express, but my plan was to move that layover to the Edison Station platform. As soon as I got off at Edison I spotted the Amtrak Acela Express trainset with power cars #2012 and #2013 approaching southbound and I got video of it passing my northbound NJT Northeast Corridor Line local with cab car #7048 and ALP-46 #4633. After departure, the local knocks down the 1N signal at EDISON interlocking to a Restricting indication.
EDISON interlocking provides access to the west end of the Edison Yard from NEC tracks #1 and #2. Back in the region's industrial heyday the yard was a hub for local shippers including a large Ford assembly plant. Most of these have since closed, but there is enough traffic to keep the infrastructure around. Unlike most interlockings, EDISON's limits extend nearly a mile between what would normally be automatic block signaling locations. Here we see a fox crossing over tracks 1 and 2 in EDISON interlocking.
Just before the NJT weekend express train arrived, I was able to witness a pretty epic race between southbound Keystone Train #663 on track #3 and Regional Train 153 on track #4. Train 663, hauled by ACS-86 #670, made up a 30 second deficit with Train 153, hauled by ACS-86 #663, eventually passing it just before the New Brunswick Station!
The weekend express was hauled by #4612 with cab car #7060 on the rear seen here at Edison and Metutchen respectively.
The Metutchen Station features PRR era station buildings with Penn Central era canopies.
A westbound NEC local was quick to arrive with cab car #7001 and ALP45 #4548, but I was going to take the hour long headway to explore the station area.
Crossing over to the westbound platform I caught an eastbound Keystone with Metroliner Cab Car #9638 and ACS-86 #632.
This was followed by eastbound Amtrak Acela Express with power car #2023 and #2025. I got a video passing through LINCOLN interlocking and the Metutchen NJ Transit station.
LINCOLN tower was built by the PRR around WW2 as part of a general trend to replace older wooden towers with mechanically worked switched. It was closed in the early 1990's, but still stands as an MoW office.
Here I caught a southbound Amtrak Regional with ACS-86 #621.
The Metutchen station platforms extend on bridges over Main St.
The arrival of another eastbound weekend express with ALP-46 #4652 and cab car #7002, indicates its almost time for my own train back to Trenton.
That train came in the form of a single level set with Comet V cab car #6039.
Fast forward to Trenton and my train, with ALP-46 #4659, pulled into Track #5 adjacent to a laid up SEPTA Push-Pull set with ACS-86 #912. For some reason I saw multiple ALP-46 number boards with stenciled digits.
I had a few minutes before the RiverLINE departure and while I was waiting an inbound SEPTA R7 pulled in from the storage tracks east of the station. The leading pair of Silverliners IV, #101 and #102, were the first of 44 pairs delivered to the Reading in early 1976.
While the SEPTA R7 pulled in, and eastbound Amtrak Keystone arrived across the platform with Metroliner Cab Car #9635.
While walking back to the concourse, southbound Amtrak Crescent Train 19 arrived behin ACS-86 #619.
Comet V #6039 again at Trenton track #5 and ALP-46 #4628 pulling in from Morrisville Yard.
My final travel leg of the day was RiverLINE the back to Bordentown using the same LRV that had taken me out to Trenton, #530.
That's all for my trip to Metutchen, if you'd like to learn about the super rare left handed PRR dwarf signal at LINCOLN you can read about it on my other blog.
With all the infrastructure money now sloshing about, many landmark structures up and down and NEC are in danger of replacement and this includes the PRR Susquehanna River Bridge between Havre De Grace and Perryville, MD. When I caught wind that piers from an earlier 19th century span were marked for demolition as part of the project, I got my butt down there to get whatever photographs that I could ( mirror ). Also included are some photos of some trips to DC on MARC and WMATA.
The current bridge was built in 1906, replacing an earlier wooden truss span, later upgraded to iron, that opened in 1866. The 19th century bridge was converted to a road bridge before being closed in 1940 when the current US 40 double through truss bridge replaced it. The granite for the 1866 piers were quarried in nearby Port Deposit.
The north end of the bridge is part of PERRY interlocking that represents the junction with the former Conrail Port Road Branch that continues to provide freight access to the lower NEC. Here a southbound Acela trainset with power cars #2035 and #2039 pass under PERRY's northbound signal bridge.
Here a northbound Amtrak Regional train with ACS-86 #635 passes through the Susquehanna Bridge's swing span. Port Deposit was home to a shipyard which closed in the 1980's making bridge openings much less frequent. Today the swing span is non-interlocked and requires a track crew to unbolt the rails to enable movement.
Since the closure of the Perryville Veterans Administration complex, the road under the northernmost span has been closed, but pedestrians can get an up close view of the Eye-bar based truss system.
The demolition barge was working the south side of the river. The new span will actually be to the north of the present one, so the reason given for the demolition of the historic piers was "environmental remediation". There were 11 19th century piers in total and I am sure their removal helped create "jobs".
Here we see ACS-86 #611 crossing the bridge with a southbound Regional.
Another view of the central swing span. It's height makes openings very infrequent.
Here, northbound Amtrak Regional Train #146 crosses the 1902 replacement span over the Susquehanna River, taking the Clear 2N signal at PERRY interlocking. This was followed by northbound Amtrak Silver Star Train #92 hauled by Veterans ACS-86 #642. Trains crossing the bridge make an enchanting rumble that a modern replacement will be unlikely to replicate.
I was unfortunately caught in a bad position to get good video of a double headed southbound Amtrak Silver Meteor Train 97 as it crossed the bridge with ACS-86 #614 and #617, meeting northbound Carolinian Train 80 in the process.
The south end of the bridge was located directly adjacent to GRACE interlocking where the 2-track bridge expanded back to 4 tracks. Amtrak moved GRACE about half a mile to the south due to the risk of Chase, MD style accidents taking place on the bridge span.
It will be interesting to see if the chief engineers get their name on the new bridge, or just the politicians who arranged the funding.
That's all for the Susquehanna River Bridge, but I also have some additional DC transit photos from a work trip. On Day 1 I parked at Greenbelt catching 6k car #6042 in to the city and returning on 7k car #7706.
The next day I took MARC, but didn't manage any inbound photos. Returning my train had cab car #7856 and MP36PH-3C locomotive #15.
On the adjacent track #9 was single level cab car #7761 and MP36PH-3C's #25 and #27.
On the last day it was back to the DC Metro with #7350 inbound from Greenbelt and #7272 back.
At some point in the month I was picking someone up from BWI and caught Amtrak ACS-86 #665 at BWI along with some center track action with northbound Cardinal Train #50 and evening Acela Train #2174.
Also while heading out to Pittsburgh I stopped for dinner in Frederick and caught the 720pm arriving MARC Brunswick Line train with MP36PH-3C leading and split level cab car #8055 after sunset.
I hope you liked the photos. Next week I'll be taking advantage of NJT's free transit promotion as I head to get photos in Metutchen, NJ.
